Each fall the Padua freshman, sophomores, and juniors are required to take the PSATs. Taking the PSATs is declared mandatory, but yet students are required to pay for them. The PSATs are given to freshman and sophomores to supposedly help prepare students and improve scores on the actual SATs. For freshman and sophomores the PSATs are purely for the purpose of practicing. It is only in junior year that the PSATs count as part of the NMSQT national competition, where students may win scholarship money if they score in the top percentiles. Taking the PSATs may seem like a good idea for underclassmen but in reality it may be the cause of unnecessary stress.
Although taking the PSATs may help to mentally prepare underclassmen for the SAT it actually has a very little correlation to actual SAT scores, and provides an unnecessary stressor to the anxiety filled start of the first two years at Padua. According to SAT expert Erica Meltzer underclassmen PSAT scores have little to do with SAT scores: “While PSAT scores can serve as a general indicator of someone’s strengths and weaknesses, they are in no way an indicator of a student’s potential and often bear little relationship to the scores achieved in the spring of junior year or the fall of senior year.”
In classes teachers focus on preparing students for the PSAT with different test taking strategies, instead of focusing on a wide range of subjects. Teachers focus primarily on topics that will be covered in standardized tests. Many teachers feel that the need to cover material on standardized restricts the curriculum the curriculum they can teach. Which begs the question, “Are standardized tests lowering the quality of education?” In addition as underclassmen, much of the material on the PSATs has not been covered by their classes yet. As a result students may become frustrated and unnecessarily anxious about taking PSATs or even standardized tests in general.
One of the supposed pros of taking the PSATs is that the scores will be an indicator of how a student will perform on the actual SATs. But in fact, many researchers, SAT expert Erica Meltzer included, believe that the scores given on the PSATs are not actually reflective of the scores a student will receive on the SAT. Many students knowing that is a practice take a relaxed lackadaisical attitude leading to lower scores. They know their scores count for nothing and feel no pressure to succeed. In other students the PSATs have an opposite effect. They come across new material that has not yet been covered by their classes and become overwhelmed and anxious. Younger students can let these emotions affect their test taking. This reflects in lower scores. So in actuality the scores given on the PSATs may or may not be indicative of real SAT scores.
Taking the PSATs should be required for juniors, but there is no need for them to be required for underclassmen. All though the fee for taking the PSATs may seem like no big deal,it is not fair to require students to pay for an assesment that counts towards virtually nothing. The option should be available for underclassmen to take the PSATs but it should not be a requirement.
